My Lady Vampire by Sahara Kelly Read Free Book Online Page A

useless even had she been able to reach the handle. The road sloped--their momentum was accelerating--there could only be one outcome.
    They weren’t going to make it .
    “Jessie-- jump. Jump now .” Katherine kept the carriage steady as best she could but there was no way she could see if her maid had followed her instructions.  She felt the offside wheels leave the rutted surface and she swayed precariously, trying to give Jessie a few more seconds to find a soft spot to land.
    Then she jumped, a moment of free falling terror that seemed to last an eternity. The ground rose up to meet her, hard and unforgiving.
    And blackness descended upon the mind and body of Mrs. Katherine Byerly. Before she succumbed, a flash of insight crossed her mind. This was retribution for her appallingly awful actions.
    She should never have run away.
    - - - -
     
    “Sir Sidney, do come, sir. It’s right dreadful is what it is…”
    Sidney’s housekeeper shouted at him through his half open study door, jerking him out of his snooze. The sun had not yet risen, but as was his habit these days, he’d dozed off over some book or other.
    Usually he’d head off to his bed at this time, sleeping away some of the daylight hours like his son. But apparently that was not going to occur today. Something--in the words of Mrs. Tooting-- right dreadful had happened.
    He followed her from the house into the curved gravel driveway that graced his own front door.
    There he found a scene of chaos, with several voices raised at once. They seemed to be clustered around an open wagon, which held what could well be a corpse. “If you’d all be quiet for a moment…”
    Silence fell. Sidney recognized his stable boy. “Tommy, tell me what is going on?”
    The lad respectfully touched his forelock. “I was comin’ back from me Mam’s, Sir. Went over yestereve’ and stayed the night with ‘er, since she’s a bit poorly-like.”
    That earned him an approving look from Mrs. Tooting, and he blushed. “So as I was a’comin’ down the road yon, the one that curves over the down near the Chyne, I heard horses whinnying and crying something awful.”
    Another man stepped forward. “I was headin’ out for me fields, Sir Sidney.”
    Sidney recognized a local farmer and nodded. “Go on.”
    “I heard ‘em too, and when we got there, well…” He looked down. “’T’were just terrible.”
    Sidney looked at the wagon. “An accident?”
    Both men nodded and the small crowd moved aside so that Sidney could near the body. Or bodies. It seemed there were two unmoving bundles in the shadows of the cart.
    “We didn’t know what else to do wi’ her, Sir.” Tommy chewed his lip. “T’other one was gone, she was. Neck snapped clean as a whistle.”
    Sidney sighed. One of the women lying wrapped in some loose thing was alive, that was for sure, since her pulse throbbed beneath his questing fingers. But she was injured too. How extensively remained to be seen.
    “Had to put down one of the ‘osses,” said the farmer sadly. “T’other had kicked through the traces. Scratched and bruised up a bit, but he should make it just fine.”
    “Seein’ as how you knows about herbs and medicine an’ all, Sir Sidney, we brung her along here. I hope we done right?” Tommy looked extremely anxious now.
    Sidney turned to them. “Take her inside please. Mrs. Tooting will tell you where. And yes, Tommy, you did the right thing. I doubt the doctor will be back in the village for a few days. By the looks of things this poor woman won’t last that long.”
    Mrs. Tooting frowned. “Are you sure, sir? This is a bachelor establishment, you know. Perhaps she’d be better off with young Mr. Trethearne and his wife.”
    Sidney frowned. “They’re a good five miles the other side of Jacob’s house, woman. That’s more than two hours from here, and you know it. Besides…” He glanced once more at the unconscious form. “She’s wearing a wedding ring. I expect